According to
Canada's 2001 census, there were
579,740
Muslims in
Canada, just under 2% of the
population.[1]
In 2006, the Muslim population was
estimated to be 0.8 million or about
2.6% (though not all were
practicing, some are "cultural
Muslims").[2]

Demographics, concentration, and
life

Most Canadian
Muslims are people who were raised
Muslim. There is also a rapidly
expanding number of converts to
Islam from other religions. As with
immigrants in general, Muslim
immigrants have come to Canada for a
variety of reasons. These include
higher education, security,
employment, and family
re-unification. Others have come for
religious and political freedom, and
safety and security, leaving behind
civil wars, persecution, and other
forms of civil and ethnic strife. In
the 1980s, Canada became an
important place of refuge for those
fleeing the
Lebanese Civil War. The 1990s
saw Somali Muslims arrive in the
wake of the
Somali Civil War as well as
Bosnian Muslims fleeing the breakup
of the former
Yugoslavia. However Canada has
yet to receive any significant
numbers of Iraqis fleeing the
Iraqi War. But in general almost
every Muslim country in the world
has sent immigrants to Canada — from
Albania to
Yemen to
Bangladesh.[3]

The
fertility rate for Muslims in
Canada is significantly higher than
the rate for other Canadians (an
average of 2.4 children per woman
for Muslims, compared with 1.6
children per woman for other
populations in Canada).[4]

The majority of
Canadian Muslims — and not
coincidentally a large proportion of
the country's immigrants — live in
the province of
Ontario, with the largest groups
settled in and around the
Greater Toronto Area. According
to the 2001 Census, there were
254,110 Muslims living in Greater
Toronto.[5]

British Columbia also has a
significant Muslim population.
Assuming that most immigrants from
the
Middle East and
Iran are Muslims, the two
largest Muslim communities in
Vancouver were Middle Eastern
(>50,000) and Iranian (>30,000).[6]
Canada's national capital
Ottawa hosts many
Lebanese and
Somali Muslims, where the Muslim
community numbered approximately
40,000 in 2001.[6]
Greater Montreal's Muslim community
neared 100,000 in 2001.[6]
It is home to large numbers of
Canadians of Moroccan, Algerian and
Lebanese descent, as well as smaller
Pakistani,Syrian, Iranian,
Bangladeshi, and Turkish
communities.[6]
These communities are not
exclusively, but predominantly,
Muslim. In addition to
Vancouver, Ottawa, and
Montreal, nearly every major
Canadian metropolitan area has a
Muslim community, including
Halifax (3,070),
Windsor (10,745),
Winnipeg (4,805),
Calgary (28,920),
Edmonton (19,580),
Vancouver (52,590), where more
than a third are of Iranian descent,
and
Toronto (30,230).[6]

As the
Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms guarantees freedom of
religious expression, Canadian
Muslims face no official
religious discrimination. Under
Section 2(a) of the Charter, the
wearing of the
hijab is permitted in
schools and places of work, although
Quebec has ruled that the niqab or a
burka are not welcome in Schools or
Medical facilities with other
provinces considering a similar ban.[8]
Religious holidays and dietary
restrictions are also respected, but
outside major urban areas it may be
difficult to find
halal food. It is also often
difficult to observe
Islamic rules against usury.
Muslims in some parts of Canada have
asked to have family dispute courts
to oversee small family cases but
were faced with rigorous opposition
from traditional groups and liberal
Muslim groups, labelling the request
as a move towards imposing a 'Sharia'
Law. This proposal was opposed by
the
Muslim Canadian Congress, the
Canadian Council of Muslim Women and
non-Muslim women's groups.[9][10]
In light of publicity, Muslims in
Canada have elected to put the
subject to rest.

History

The Muslim
community in Canada is almost as old
as the nation itself. Four years
after Canada's founding in 1867, the
1871 Canadian Census found 13
Muslims among the population.[11]
The first Canadian
mosque was constructed in
Edmonton in 1938, when there
were approximately 700 Muslims in
the country.[12]
This building is now part of the
museum at
Fort Edmonton Park. The years
after
World War II saw a small
increase in the Muslim population.
However Muslims were still a
distinct minority. It was only after
the removal of European immigration
preferences in the late 1960s that
Muslims began to arrive in
significant numbers.

According to the
Canadian Census of 1971 there were
33,000 Muslims in Canada.[13]
In the 1970s large-scale
non-European immigration to Canada
began. This was reflected in the
growth of the Muslim community in
Canada. In 1981, the Census listed
98,000 Muslims.[14]
The 1991 Census indicated 253,265
Muslims.[15]
By 2001, the Islamic community in
Canada had grown to more than
579,000.[7]
Estimates for the Census 2006
pointed to a figure of 800,000.[2]

Compared to
Muslims in Europe, Canadian
Muslims have not faced the same set
of problems.[16]
The Muslim community in Canada is
just one among many ethnic,
religious, racial and cultural
communities that together make up
Canada. Although Canadian Muslims
may be classified as Muslims for
official governmental statistical
and policy-making purposes, that
does not necessarily mean that all
who are identified as such are
practicing Muslims. In other words,
they may be culturally Muslim, while
at the same time leading secular
lives, as the case with many
Anglophone Christians, especially of
Protestant heritage who may be
identified as such but have never
consider themselves as Christians.

Organisations

The Muslim
community in Canada is represented
by several organizations:

However, the
major aspect of the Muslim community
in Canada is the widespread of
cities associations such as the
Muslim Council of Montreal for
example, Toronto's Council, that
deals mainly with issues pertaining
to the community in that city and
they support the national
associations.

Most of these
organisations are not grass root
organizations, except MAC, but are
umbrellas and coordination bodies
between local associations.

These are only
some of the key organisations within
the Muslim Canadian community. As
the community is large and diverse
with well over 60 ethno-cultural
groups various organisations are
continually emerging as they seek to
meet the needs of community members.

Student-led
initiatives are generally well
supported and successful, including
annual events such as
MuslimFest and the
Reviving the Islamic Spirit
conference, the largest Islamic
event in Canada.

Honour

In May, 2010,
Canada bestowed honorary Canadian
citizenship upon the Aga Khan, a
spiritual leader of 20 million
Ismaili Muslims worldwide. Aga Khan
became the second religious figure
after the Dalai Lama to get the
country's honorary citizenship.[17][18]

A documentary
by Iranian-born filmmaker
Saide Kardar about
Toronto's Muslim community
and provides a look at the
conflict of identity among young
Muslims living in Canada.[19]

Little Mosque on the Prairie
is a Canadian sitcom on CBC
Television, created by
Zarqa Nawaz. The series
focuses on the Muslim community
in the fictional prairie town of
Mercy, Saskatchewan (population
14,000).

Zarqa Nawaz with the
National Film Board has also
produced Me and the Mosque
(2005) a documentary about the
role of women in Islam, both
throughout history and in
contemporary Canada, told from a
personal perspective.

Other:

The Prime
Minister expressed that
“Calgarians, Albertans and
Canadians will see the moderate,
benevolent face of Islam in this
mosque and the people who
worship here.” and he said,
“They will see your love for
Canada and your patriotism, and
they will see that just as
Ahmadis have embraced
Canada, Canada has embraced
you.”